My friend Gracie moved to Durham, the other end of the Axis of Cool. Gracie, who as a puppy was a bit… spirited, has become Seriously Chill. Not all the time, of course, but she knows how to behave when she hangs out at Fullsteam. She’s only been in Durham a month, but she has Found Her Cool.

Really, she’s happiest when she can just sit on your feet and look up at you adoringly. All the better in a crowd, when you can sit on a whole bunch of feet at the same time.

Last night we had a birthday party for Julia, Gracie’s roommate. A bunch of us trekked over from Raleigh for a tour of the new house, food trucks, s’mores, and trivia at Fullsteam. I personally consider Durham to be just another fabulous Triangle neighborhood; my plan is for my friends to get a foothold in every part of the Triangle and then we’ll always have a home base somewhere fun, whenever something is going on. So nobody minds the drive over, especially when there are friends and food trucks at the end of it.

We fueled up on dinner from Kokyu and Local in Motion. May I say, I’d be willing to drive back over right this second for another Caveman Style taco. There’s always the danger that someone will sneak cilantro into my tacos, and I have the cilantro gene, and it tastes like pesticide to me, and I will go on a rant about it any time you let me. Caveman taco: yes please. More.

So we taco-ed and duck-totted and bruschetta-ed and risotto-ed up, and then Motorco was kind enough to let us use their fire pit for roasting marshmallows while we drank beer. Julia had cleared this with the owners in advance, and they were as nice as could be, though they mentioned on the day she asked that 85 degrees was maybe a little warm for a fire. “It’s my birthday,” she pointed out. “Things will work out.” And they did. The temperature dropped into the fifties. The rain held off. We toasted. PJ made the prettiest s’more of all of us.

They were sticky and gooey and messy and fun. We couldn’t talk anyone else hanging around at Motorco to try one, although we did give away some graham crackers, and lots of people wanted to know how to make a marshmallow. (Try this!)

After we got all sticky, Gracie took us over to Fullsteam, where we had more good beer and lost at trivia. We aced a couple of categories (product mascots and bodies of water) and washed out on a couple (things that start with “M” and documentaries.) Gracie was no help at all, but she kept our feet warm. We are all happy to report that we finished in the top 70%.

Maybe not the sharpest folks in the crowd, but Durham is a pretty smart place, so that’s fine. Everyone’s welcome over there, anyway. Everyone respects everyone else’s brand of Cool, whatever that is. It’s always a good time, especially when you’re celebrating.